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Aiken Standard (Newspaper) - March 17, 1989, Aiken, South Carolina
Inside Today Ucn St Mike Freeman lioiners Gtod He Moved lo Aiken The Aiken Standards 19th annual Triple Crown Edition is included in to days newspaper Veteran trainer Mike Freeman is featured on the cover A Quick Read Wholesale Prices Jump 1 Percent WASHINGTON AP Wholesale prices soared 10 percent in Febru ary for the second consecutive month pushed up by surging energy and food prices the government said today The identical backtoback in creases as measured by the Labor Departments Producer Price Index mean that inflation at the wholesale level one stop short of retail is run ning at 126 percent annual rate so far in 1989 That is more than triple the 40 percent increase for all of last year Both large jumps had surprised analysts who in advance of both re ports had predicted moderate rises of about 04 percent After Januarys numbers were reported economists dismissed them as an aberration and said inflation would return to the 4 percent to 5 percent annual pace of late last year Wholesale food prices rose 12 per cent last month the steepest in crease in 13 months They had risen almost as much in January 11 percent Tower Collapses At Least 2 Dead PAVIA Italy AP A 255foot medieval tower collapsed today in a downtown square of this northern Italian city and authorities reported at least two people were killed and 10 injured A spokesman for the local fire de partment said about 100 firefighters were digging through the debris to search for more possible victims There are two confirmed deaths Those injured were treated at the San Matteo hospital None of them is in serious condition a spokesman for the fire department told The As sociated Press The 900yearold tower collapsed at 9 am 3 am EST and its red bricks were scattered throughout the square in front of the cathedral The 501yearold cathedral adja cent to the collapsed tower escaped damage authorities reported The area where the tower col lapsed is a favorite gathering place for tourists residents and shoppers Page 2 A Chile Seizes Ships In Fruit Retaliation PagelB MUSC Picked To Help Run SRP Medical Weather Fair Skies Deaths John D Bryan Aiken Enit Felder Jr Greensboro NC Henry L Gunter West Columbia Andrew L Murphy Jackson John Myers Warrenville Theo Roland Williston Will Scott Edgelield Harvey H Sharpe Aiken Please see details on Page 8A Inside Today Fair skies are forecast tonight with a low in the upper 40s Partly cloudy skies are forecast Saturday with a high in the low 80s Please see details on Page 8A Bridge Calendar Classifieds Comics Crossword Cryptoquote Dear Abby Local Front Obituaries Opinions Sports Television Weather 4C 10A 1C 68 5C 3C 6B 1B 8A 6A 3B 6B 8A Friday March 171989 Aikeni South Carolina Vol 122 No 66 Watkins Foresees SRP Expansion BY KATHY KADANE States News Service WASHINGTON Energy Secretary James D Watkins said Thursday that he foresees tremendous expansion of the Savannah River nuclear weapons plant over the next decade making the Aiken facility the flagship of the United States nuclear weapons complex In a meeting with US Rep Butler Der rick DSC in Washington Watkins told the lawmaker that SRPs three operable production reactors shut down since last summer for management and equipment upgrades can be restarted safely and op erated efficiently for more than 10 years despite structural problems reported recently such as cracked pipes in some reactor cooling systems Watkins was sworn in as energy secre tary last week At his first appearance before a congressional panel Watkins advocated Wednesday establishing a fiveyear budget plan for cleaning up the environment at the nations weapons plants and reforming the DOEs budget process In an interview Rep Derrick said he had requested the meeting with Watkins in order to get acquainted with him and that he had come away from the meeting with an extremely positive impression He is personally involved in bringing SRP up to speed Rep Derrick said He told me he wanted to make it a flag ship of DOE Rep Derrick said the energy secretary told him a wellimplemented moderniza tion plan could expand the useful life of the existing Savannah River reactors even after a new production reactor slat ed for construction at the Aiken site has come on line about the year 2000 Watkins strongly supports construction of the NPR Rep Derrick said Watkins told a Senate committee Wednesday that he had employed an out side team of consultants to assess prob lems throughout the nations weapons complex and also to take an independent look at how well DOE and Westinghouse officials had performed in planning for the restart of the Aiken reactors Westinghouse Savannah River Co will replace the Du Pont Co as SRP contrac tor on April 1 See WATKINS Page HA Traffic wi be One Way south bound Staff Map By Sharon McLaughlin Discovery Astronauts Pack For Return Trip By The Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL Fla Discov erys astronauts packed today for the end of their 19 millionmile voyage and pre pared the shuttle for a fiery plunge to ward a dawn landing Saturday on a Cali fornia desert Discovery commander Michael L Coats and pilot John E Blaha planned to run through a series of tests today to make sure the shuttles computers and control jets were ready for the return to Earth The other astronauts made final runs on a group of experiments and followed a script to shoot the last 4000 feet of film in a powerful 70mm IMAX camera used principally to study the Earths environ mental trouble spots Then they were to stow their equipment for the trip home Discoverys early bird crew preempt ed the traditional morning music from Mission Control in Houston for a third day in a row A few minutes before they were to be awakened the astronauts beamed to Earth a tape of Hi Ho Hi Ho Its Off To Work We Go the work song of the seven dwarfs in the animated movie classic Snow White Mission Control capsule communicator David Low referring to the seven dwarfs responded We can account for See DISCOVERY Page 8A Begins Tomorrow From Staff Reports I Residents of Aiken are waiting with an ticipation for the festivities that begin tomorrow i Aikens annual Triple Crown is about to begin marking the culmination of the winter training season The first of the races the Aiken Trials will be held March 18 at the Aiken Train ing Track Traffic Safety RulesPage14A These races are noted for providing the first glimpse of horses that have gone on to be Eclipse Award winners and national champions Part of this series of flat races will be the first test for young Thoroughbreds Two of the five events will be for older horses many of which have competed before The gates will open to the public at 10 pm Post time will be at 2 pm Tickets for the event may be bought in Major Chain Store Considering Aiken Mall Staff Photo By Ginny Southworth GATE BREAK These Thoroughbreds make their start from the gate in one of the Aiken Trials races last year advance for at the Aiken Chamber of Commerce Tickets at the gate are for adults and for children ages six to 11 General admissions parking is Reserved spaces on the front and sec ond rows are also still available Front row spaces are and second row spaces are Motor homes may park in special places for The event is sponsored by the Aiken Jaycees for the benefit of Camp Hope The Aiken Steeplechase Races will be held March 25 at Clark Field Six races will be run on the flat and over jumps for total purses of The gates will open at 10 am and post time will be at pm See CROWN Page 14A By PHILIP LORD Staff Writer A fourth major chain store is in the final stages of negotiations to locate in the Aiken Mall which is slated to open this fall Brendles Catalog Store is currently ne gotiating a lease agreement with George D Zamias developer of the mall said Jacqueline J Beck a spokesman for Zamias The chain was surveying the Aiken market before they were approached by mall officals about locating at the facili ty said Ken Hardin leasing agent for Zamias Brendles if it signs the final contracts will join Belk of Aiken Sears Roebuck and Co and JC Penney Inc as anchor stores for the 500000 square foot facility which is located on the west side of Whis key Road The announcement of a fifth anchor store is expected within the next 90 days Ms Beck added In addition to the large anchor stores between 58 to 68 small shops will be able to locate at the mall The number of small shop owners that will be able to locate at the facility will depend upon the size store that each own er desires Hardin said Approximately 70 percent of the spaces available for small shops in the mall have already been leased Ms Beck said Small shop owners will be able to work on their stores in the mall starting in May to prepair for an October grand opening Zamias a Johnstown Pa based devel oper is the owner operator and develop er of the Aiken Mall The firm was recently ranked 27th in development by the Real Estate Times Zamias is developing more than 14 mil lion square feet of retail space this year Ms Beck said Of this space at least six major shop ping centers are being developed in the southeast she added In addition to the mall strucure the company is planning to construct a strip center that will house a supermarket and four to six smaller shops Hardin said The center which will not be connected to the mall is slated to be located on the Aiken side of the mall Search For Defense Secretary Is Expected To End Today By The Associated Press WASHINGTON Rep Dick Cheneys comfortable glide toward confirmation as defense secretary provided a quiet fin ish to what began as the most bitter polit ical dispute of the new Bush administration The search for a new defense secretary was expected to end today with easy Sen ate confirmation of Cheney the replace ment nominee Bush chose after John Tower was rejected for the job in a bruis ing partisan battle Cheney won a unani mous endorsement Thursday from the Senate Armed Services Committee Majority leader George Mitchell D Maine said the Senate would take up the nomination of the sixterm Wyoming con gressman today before it begins its two week recess The committee voted 200 Thursday to recommend confirmation of Cheney at proceedings tliat took less than 15 min utes and stoou in marked contrast to the rancorous lengthy struggle over the Tower nomination Last month the committee voted 119 along party lines against the former Tex as senator and after six days of bitter partisan debate the full Senate defeated the nomination 5347 The Tower vote exactly one week ago was a major defeat for President Bush in his first highstakes clash with Congress Bush during a questionandanswer session in Houston said he was very pleased at the panels action But both he and Towers opponents showed Thursday that despite their promises to forgive they arc not quite ready to forget Bush used his Houston speech to reiter ate his criticism of the tone of the Senate debate that led to Towers rejection Tow er he said had been tried by perception and rumor That is not the American way See SKARCH Page XA AP Laserphoto DICK CHENEY Hes expected to be confirmed by the Senate today as President Bushs new defense secretary
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